I’ve recently done some reading resulting in great insights about the power of team-based incentives, and how their power is tied to social proof and a culture of transparency.

In general, research shows that we’re hard-wired to strive more to achieve team objectives than we strive to achieve personal ones. In fact, organizations have a greater performance boost when a team incentive is offered as opposed to an individual one. But this magic only works given certain conditions. We will work harder given the example of our peers; but that depends on making performance information available in a transparent way.